Concrete track construction for railways.



K. E. PORTER. CONCRETE TRAGK CONSTRUCTION FOR RAILWAYS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN.15, 1912.

1,082,236. L Patented Dec. 23,1913.

,,,, I///// ll KENNETH E. PORTER, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

CONCRETE TRACK CONSTRUCTION FOR RAILWAYS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 23, 1913.

Application filed January 15, 1912. Serial No. 671,281.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, KENNETH E. PORTER,

a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of Cincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Concrete Track Construction for Railways, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specificatio My invention relates to permanent track construction for street railways in which the track is laid in paved streets in a permanent concrete bed, and the general object of my invention is to provide a construction in which the use of cross ties shall be dispensed with, and the rails supported on chairs securely and permanently anchored in the concrete bed, at the same time that the rails are secured in place, so that they may be readily and easily removed and the track relaid at the least expense and without displacing or removing the supporting chairs or destroying or injuriously effecting the fastening devices.

In all track constructions embodying the use of concrete, it is essential to permanency that the rail be so securely anchored into the concrete that the entire structure will act as a unit. With the wood tie this is, of course, impossible as there is no positive bond between wood and concrete, and satisfactory results have only been secured in the past by the use of either steel ties or of bearing plates with anchor bolts. Both of these schemes, while reasonably satisfactory, are more or less expensive, and are open to the objection that it is practically impossible to relay track of this kind without destroying the old fastenings. This, of course, means the entire removal of these fastenings and the installation of new ones which is objectionable not only because of the heavy expense involved, but also because of the weakening of the entire structure which is inevitable.

My invention more specifically consists of the novel construction of metallic chair and the means for securing the rails thereto, to be hereinafter more particularly pointed out and claimed, whereby the fastenings for the rail may be easily removed and replaced without damage to the fastening or the foundation, and the gage of the relaid track may be readily adjusted as desired, and

whereby not only a positive and secure anchorage is afforded for each rail, but an ideal support is provided for the rail joints to give permanency of construction and insuring the proper distribution of stresses essential to the best construction.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a cross section of my improved construction, broken away at the middle portion. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal side elevation of the same, with the concrete and paving removed, showing a rail joint. Fig. 3 is a perspective View of one of my improved rail chairs. Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the chair, with a portion of rail secured thereto, illustrating a rail joint as shown in Fig. 2, with the rail in longitudinal section. Fig. 5 is a perspective View of a modified form of chair.

The road bed is formed in the usual way of a body of concrete 1 on the surface of the ground, of any desired thickness, with longitudinal trenches under each rail, also filled with concrete 2, to serve as a solid base for the track construction. On the upper surface of the concrete a layer of sand 3 is also usually rovided upon which the street paving bloc s 4 are usually laid flush with the top surface of the car rails 5. Before the concrete is filled in, the metallic chairs 6 are located in place every few feet, and upon these chairs the rails are supported, and the proper gage is obtained, and the rails held in position by the usual tie rods 7, which connect together the webs 8, 8, of the opposite rails. The supporting chairs are preferably formed of rolled steel plate as an integral structure, although they may be formed of cast steel, or in some instances of malleable or cast iron, or they may be made up of two or more rolled sectlons. The chairs are formed with the broad base 9, vertical web 10 and top plate 11. The top plate is provided with inturned side flanges 12, which are spaced wider than the base 13 of the rail, so that the rail may be laid fiat without tipping, to rest between the flanges and adapted to be shifted laterally to obtain the proper gage for the track. Wedges 14 are then driven in between the side flanges and the side edges of the base of the rail, the wedges being inserted from opposite sides and driven to a seat to securely lock the rail to the chairs. The track structure is temporarily raised to the proper height by wooden blocks or in any other desired way, to hold the structure temporarily in position with the chairs suspended from the rails, and then the concrete is filled in and properly tamped, anchoring and permanently fixing the chairs in the concrete bed. The concrete completely surrounds the chairs and is usually filled in around the vertical web of the'rails as shown in Fig. 1.

My construction of chair is especially adapted for strengthening and supporting the track structure at the rail joints, whereby the extra loading of the structure, due to the rail being broken, may be distributed over such an area of the foundation as will bring the resulting stresses well within the working limits of the material. For this purpose, the chairs for the joints are furnished in extra lengths, preferably about the length of the fish plates with which the ends of the rails are bolted together. As wedges of the length of these joint supporting chairs would not be practicable, I cut away the flanges 14: at suitable intervals as shown at 15, 15, so as to receive the number of ordinary length wedges desired. The bottom flange 16 of the fish plate 17 used for joining the ends of the rails does not extend out over the edges'of the base of the rails so that there is no interference with the application of the wedges.

rail and replacing with new, the wedges again being used to lock the new rail to the chair, and the proper gage may be readily obtained as hereinbefore described, while there is no damage either to the fastening or the foundation in this relaying of the track. Where nuts and bolts are employed in concrete construction, it is practically impossible to release the bolts, and the fastenings have to be destro ed to relay the rails, to the consequent etriment of the concrete structure.

Instead of forming the chair with a single vertical Web, a construction such as is shown in Fig. 5may be employed, in which side webs 18, 18, with horizontal flanges 19, 19, for the base are substituted for the single central web 10 and base 9.

Having thus described 111 invention, what I claim as new and deslre to secure by Letters Patent, is

In a railway track construction, the combination with the track rails having the top surface of the rails flush with the surface of the roadway and a concrete bed underneath the roadway lengthwise of the rails for supporting the same, without the use of cross ties, of metallic chairs permanently embedded in the concrete upon which the rails are mounted, said chairs comprising a horizontal base with a vertical web and horizontal top plate, the top plate provided with integral inturned side flanges spaced apart wider than the base of the rail, with wedges seated between the flanges and rail base on each side for the adjustment of the gage and to lock the rails to the chairs whereby the rails may be removed and replaced without tipping and without damaging or disturbing the chairs or the fastenings and with the tie rods at intervals above the concrete bed connecting together the opposite rails) KENNETH E. PORTER.

Witnesses:

EARL M. GRIFFIN, ANNA F. Drama. 

